The alphabet was invented by a community of West Semitic laborers (Canaanites) in the Sinai Peninsula around the 2nd millennium BC. These miners created the first alphabetic script, known as the Proto-Sinaitic or Proto-Canaanite script, inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs but adapted to represent the sounds of their own language. This original consonantal alphabet later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet, which spread widely and served as the ancestor of many later alphabets, including Greek and Latin. The Greeks added vowels to the Phoenician system, creating the first true alphabet. The Latin alphabet, used widely today, descended from the Greek alphabet via the Etruscans and Romans.
Key Points on Alphabet Invention
- The first alphabetic writing emerged roughly 4,000 years ago among West Semitic miners in the Sinai Peninsula.
- It was inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs but adapted to represent sounds rather than whole words or syllables.
- The Phoenician alphabet, developed from this script, was consonantal and spread across the Mediterranean.
- The Greeks introduced vowels to the Phoenician system, creating the first "true alphabet."
- The Latin alphabet used today derives from the Greek alphabet, modified by the Etruscans and Romans.
This history highlights a process of invention and adaptation by different groups over centuries rather than a single inventor or moment. The earliest inventors of the alphabetic principle were likely illiterate miners who innovatively adapted existing symbols to their spoken language sounds.
